On Adenauer, Hegel, and - Migration : (or, How to Interpret Europe's "Crisis")

Germany expects to receive more than 1 million refugees in 2015. While international commentators have admired Chancellor Merkel’s response to this “crisis,” the situation is complex and the German government’s actions and Merkel’s own statements reflect multiple perspectives. In this working paper, I draw on a philosophical tradition dating back to the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to interpret the political debate of immigration and Germany’s response to the recent migrant crisis.

Communication barriers in maternity care - a questionnaire study among migrants to Norway

Background Sub-optimal maternity care among migrants has been reported in a number of European countries. Explanations are multifactorial; however, communication barriers have been suggested as a major factor. Our aim was to explore recent migrant women's reported need for interpreter, actual interpreter use and the understanding of information provided during maternity care in Norway. Methods As part of the multidisciplinary, mixed method MiPreg-project, we applied a quantitative questionnaire, using a modified version of Migrant Friendly Maternity Care Questionnaire. We included recently (≤ 5 years) migrated women born in low or middle-income countries giving birth in urban Oslo, Norway, during 2019. Face-to-face interviews in women's own language of choice were conducted postpartum. Results We included 401 women from 65 countries. The five most frequent languages spoken at home were English, Polish, Arabic, Urdu and Tigrinya. The Norwegian proficiency was low; 23% not at all, 39% with difficulty, 39% good. Two thirds of women would have understood the information during maternity care better in another language. Two out of five felt a need for interpreting services and of these 44% and 81% were not offered interpreter during pregnancy and birth, respectively. The woman's partner or other adult family member interpreted most frequently, followed by professional interpreter and healthcare professionals. The women themselves often felt they understood the information provided; 78% always, 20% sometimes and 2% rarely/never. Increased length of residency and higher education was associated with better understanding, also after adjusting for maternal age and immigrant status. Discussions Several communication barriers exist for recent migrant women, with possible consequences for quality of maternity care. Recommended standards for interpretation services were not followed. To address barriers, increased use of interpreter and multilingual antenatal courses could be effective. Key messages Low language proficiency and use of interpreter may contribute to disparities in maternity care for migrants. The unmet needs for interpretation services must be addressed with appropriate actions.

Labor Migration and Business Activity in Russia: Analysis of the Tabarman Business Platform

The article focuses on the entrepreneurial activity of migrants from Kyrgyzstan in Russia (on the example of Moscow and the Moscow region). The article analyzes the activity of the business platform “Tabarman” created by the entrepreneurs of Kyrgyz origin. The empirical part of the study is based on the event analysis of information about the activities of the tabarman business platform in social networks and the Internet, as well as on the analysis of the survey of participants of the first business forum organized by The platform, held on may 22, 2018. The analysis of the forum audience gives an opportunity to get an idea about the peculiarities of business activity of entrepreneurs of Kyrgyz origin, and the analysis of the platform as a business project-manifestations of the diversity of migrant infrastructure. The emergence of the Tabarman business platform is a vivid example of the quantitative and qualitative accumulation of personal and group resources of migrants from Kyrgyzstan, which has led to the complication of the interests and needs of recent migrant workers and the growth of entrepreneurial activity among them.

Ghosting Through Our Ruins

In this creative/critical paper, a recent migrant to the UK attempts to negotiate ideas of Africanness and Englishness through the rewriting of places linked by a statue in a small Northumberland village commemorating the death of a local officer killed in the ‘Anglo-Boer War.’ Drawing on two recent and influential theoretical developments, the ‘mobility turn’ within the social sciences and the ‘spectral turn’ in cultural criticism, this paper is a ficto-critical experiment in finding an appropriate creative form to test the generic implications of the major, and yet largely still unreflected, issue of migration and immigration/emigration in post-apartheid writing. It explores the unsettling ways in which places are not so much geographically fixed as implicated within complex circuits at once contingent and the product of material relations of power.

Role of a support network for refugee mothers

Recent studies on the transition to motherhood suggest that a support network plays a central role in maternal experience and in the development of the mother-infant relationship. Being a woman without a partner, having economic difficulties, belonging to an ethnic minority or being a recent migrant are some of the conditions that overlap with the demands of maternity and create multiple vulnerabilities. This article analyzes the maternal experience of two recent refugee women in Brazil. The analysis is based on psychotherapeutic sessions at a Winnicottian transcultural clinic offered at a host institution for pregnant women and mothers. We describe how loneliness and helplessness challenge maternal skills, while resilience and adequate shelter facilitate the construction of a support network that favors good motherhood. In our view, the professional can help ensure that maternal practices are guided by the cultural reference of origin as the mother integrates into the culture of the host country.

The use of language in migrant stay-at-home parents’ process of integration

This paper examines the use of language and how it contributes to the experiences of inclusion and exclusion of recent migrant stay-at-home parents in Finland. The study shows how the use of language facilitates the integration process of newly arrived stay-at-home parents of migrant background and affects their experiences of social inclusion and/or exclusion. The study uses the translingual approach (Canagarajah, 2013) to shed light on the multilingual reality migrants are faced with in their new surroundings. The approach is ethnographic and the data is interpreted using data-driven conventional content analysis (Tuomi & Sarajärvi, 2009, pp. 108–113). The results suggest that English works quite well as a lingua franca, although to become “fully” integrated, migrants feel that they need to develop a command of the local language.

Does post-migration education improve labour market performance? Findings from four cities in Indonesia

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine which factors are important in determining the post-migration education among rural-urban migrants in Indonesia. Second, to investigate whether investing in post-migration education in the cities improves the labour market performances of rural-urban migrants. The labour market performances are measured by the occupational (work) statuses and earnings (wages) at destination. Design/methodology/approach The determinants of post-migration education are estimated using a binary probit and ordinary least square, while a multinomial logit model and a two-step procedure of Lee’s selection-biased correction based on the multinomial logit are used to examine the effects of post-migration education on the labour market performances of migrants measured by occupational status and by wages. The main source of the data used in this study is the Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI) 2009-2011 survey conducted in the four largest recent migrant destination cities in Indonesia including Tangerang, Medan, Samarinda, and Makassar. Findings Post-migration education contributes significantly to the labour market performance in terms of work status and wages, compared to pre-migration education. In terms of work status, migrants with more post-migration education are more likely to be employed in the formal sector compared to migrants with less or no post-migration education. Relating to earnings, migrants with more post-migration education also tend to be paid more than those migrants with less or no post-migration education. Originality/value The role of post-migration education in the case of rural-urban migration particularly in developing countries is a relatively neglected area of research. One possible reason is because of the lack of data for rural-urban migration particularly in the case of developing countries. This study is taking advantage by using a new data set from RUMiCI focusing specifically on the rural-urban migrants in the four largest recent migrant destination cities in Indonesia including Tangerang, Medan, Samarinda, and Makassar.